The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Gomphrena plant botanically known as Gomphrena pulchella and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name ‘PAST0517E’.
The new cultivar originated in a controlled breeding program in Elburn, Ill. during September 2013. The objective of the breeding program was the development of Gomphrena cultivars with continuous flowering and a mounded growth habit.
The new Gomphrena cultivar is the result of open-pollination of a group of proprietary Gomphrena pulchella breeding selections not coded, not patented, characterized by red-purple colored inflorescences, medium green-colored foliage, and vigorous, mounded growth habit. Seed was harvested from all plants and sown in the field. The new cultivar was discovered and selected as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the above stated open-pollination during July 2014 in a controlled environment in Santa Paula, Calif.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal stem cuttings since July 2014 in West Chicago, Ill. and Alajuela, Costa Rica has demonstrated that the new cultivar reproduces true to type with all of the characteristics, as herein described, firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of such asexual propagation.